One of the most highly respected musicians on the international acoustic music scene Martin Simpson is a finger and bottleneck style guitarist of worldwide reputation. In addition to solo work he also currently tours with jazz-guitarist Martin Taylor and more recently with 'The Full English', a collaborative project featuring Seth Lakeman, Fay Hield, Nancy Kerr, Sam Sweeney and Robert Harbron from Bellowhead, which he describes as "a celebration, via the English Folk Dance and Song Society's on-line archive, of the early twentieth century folk song collectors".
He will be in Devon next week when he plays at Topsham Folk Club at The Matthews Hall in Topsham, on Sunday, December 1. He talked recently to Steve Chilcott about his musical tastes.What was the first record/CD you bought?
Strangely it was an EP of the ballet music Coppelia. When I was about six I wanted to be a ballet dancer… it wore off pretty quick! I already sang, but this was something that just seemed so beautiful to me so I thought, yeah, I could do that... like you do when you are six!Who was your first musical crush?
It wasn't about wanting to play like anybody; I wanted to be able to sing like Paul Robeson so I could make people cry. When I was three I heard him on '78 singing things like Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child and I just thought it was incredible and I wanted to do that.What's the best gig you have enjoyed?
When I was 15 – in 1968 – I went to Manchester Free Trade Hall for a Lippman Rau blues package. On the bill were 'T-Bone' Walker, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Big Joe Williams, Curtis Jones and Big Walter Horton. I had immense brass neck then and I went backstage, found the dressing room and hung out with these incredibly heavy-duty people! I had a long chat with Big Joe Williams which was great and so, yeah…that would be a good one!.What is your guilty music pleasure/cheesiest CD?
I don't really have any guilty ones, I mean I think there's value in all music within reason. I think some of the most fun I've ever had with music was one of the first LPs that I was ever bought when I was about ten, which was Mart Robbins' Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, and when I lived in the States I had a crazy, wild evening with some friends of mine and we acted out El Paso at great length and it was actually one of the funniest evenings of my entire life! We had far too much fun with El Paso, so there you go…!Who are you listening to now in the car or on your iPod?
Recently I've been listening to Emily Portman – her first record which I think is amazing – the Tedeschi Trucks Band 'live' record, Hedy West... all kinds of stuff. Those three have been really quite prominent of late…and I also listen a lot to The Full English because I had to re-learn the record which we made so quick.… I had to listen to it in the car and go: 'Now what did we do there?'!What is your favourite karaoke song/song to sing in the shower?
Well I don't do karaoke… (Well you are in good company, Colin Blunstone doesn't either!) What do I sing in the shower? Usually stuff that I'm working on. I have lots of favourite songs, they come and they go. One of the things that I've sung a lot has been Tom Waits' Hold On. It kind of invaded my psyche! The Bright Phoebus/Tom Waits Ensemble did a great version of the song to the extent that I just had to learn it. It was driving me bonkers! It wouldn't leave me alone! So that's been a real favourite of late…Martin Simpson plays at The Matthews Hall in Topsham (Topsham Folk Club) on Sunday, December 1. Full details at the Topsham Folk Club website
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